Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Has it been 3 weeks already?

Hello everybody, it's been a while! I officially have a little over 3 weeks of teaching under my belt and boy, there has not been a dull moment since my 20 kiddos walked in on the first day! I'm not going to sit here and say that the first couple weeks were sunshine and roses, because honestly they were tough. But I am truly enjoying my job, my kids, and the fact that I finally have my own classroom!

Speaking of my own classroom, I never posted pictures of how my classroom turned out! These pictures are from the night before school started, and things have certainly changed a bit as my room has been "lived in", but this will give you a pretty good idea of what everything looks like.

This is the view when you walk into my classroom.


Here are my Thinkpads and my Math Corner posters.


One of my favorite parts of my classroom is my alphabet. Each letter is represented by a Disney character - it is so cute and just makes me smile! I also love that extra whiteboard space, where I usually post my anchor charts and things we are working on in class.
I can't wait to really get to using this space. I am doing the Daily 5 for reading, and my kiddos are still building up stamina. I haven't had a chance to pull small groups yet, but it's coming soon!

A favorite location of most of my students: the classroom library.


Each of those buckets holds the students' extra supplies (glue sticks, markers, erasers, etc.) I love how much storage I have in my classroom!

Here is our clip chart that I made! Each student's number is on a mini clothespin that they can move up and down.


Here you can see some important features of my room: my classroom job chart, our reading focus wall, the "I'm Done, Now What?" choices for early finishers, and my cart. I LOVE that stinkin' cart! 
My [enormous!] hallway bulletin board, all ready to welcome my kiddos!

I have a lively group of second graders who make me laugh and keep me on my toes, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year with them! We've been working hard to get procedures and expectations established, and we are finally starting to settle into a routine. Unbelievably, we will be halfway through the first quarter next week... how is that even possible?! Anyway, I hope to start posting more often now that things are settling down. I hope all of your first few weeks have been wonderful!